Buzz

A fine line separates indefatigable optimism from loopiness. Buzz, whose sense of optimism abandoned us about the same time we started losing our hair many years ago, isn't certain exactly where that line is, but we're pretty sure that Bobby Wightman-Cervantes, once and future Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, has crossed it.

Wightman-Cervantes, a Dallas lawyer who placed fourth out of five candidates in the Democratic Senate primary last year, says he's making plans to close his practice and "putting out feelers" about a possible run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Phil Gramm. Wightman-Cervantes, who was profiled in the Dallas Observerlast year ("Impossible Dreamer," March 2, 2000), is also the proprietor of a vicious little Web site at www.texasjudges.net. On it, he purports to expose corruption among Texas judges, but its main purpose appears to be to stick as many knives as possible in judges who have angered him during the course of his law practice.

"The readers are free to draw any conclusion they choose from the information herein," Wightman-Cervantes says on the site. True, but he also provides some helpful hints, stating that one Dallas judge "in no uncertain terms...is a criminal and belongs in federal prison." He suggests that a Harris County judge may be covering up for "drug dealers." The "dealer" in this case was a "young postal worker" who dared drive a brand-new Mercedes involved in a traffic accident. In the world of Wightman-Cervantes' conspiracy theories, a postal worker with a Mercedes must be dealing on the side. Other judges are accused of lying and influence peddling.

"I deal in reality," he told Buzz. "I'm not the press. I don't deal in fiction."

Wightman-Cervantes, who has a penchant for suing unfavorable judges and opposing lawyers, says he only attacks a handful of "corrupt" judges and has a fine working relationship with everyone else, which is curious, considering he faces misconduct charges from the State Bar--charges he denies.

"People can accuse people of anything they want," he says, without a whiff of irony.

He was jailed briefly for contempt last year during his primary campaign, but he expects to be cleared any day now and soon will be ready to run on a campaign to rid the Senate of corruption: The courthouse's loss will be politics' gain--or vice versa.